Smilodon
First things first, although Smilodon is referred to as a sabre-tooth tiger by most people, this prehistoric mammal wasn't a true tiger at all, belonging instead to a long extinct group of cats known as the Machairodonts (a related genus unsurprisingly was Machairodus). Other than that, though, what you have heard of is mostly true: Smilodon was a large muscular predator that may have well snacked on early humans as well as the Woolly Mammoths and Giant Ground Sloths from the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs Description As formidable as it was--and despite what you've seen in popular media--Smilodon didn't hunt like a modern jaguar or Puma. Like other sabre-toothed cats ( and dirk-toothed cats and scimitar-toothed cats as well), Smilodon would leap on its prey suddenly out of the pampa grass, digging its huge incisors into the unfortunate animals neck and then withdrawing to a safe distance while its dinner bled to death. It's unknown whether Smilodon hunted in packs, though that would have certainly taked down massive herbivores such as Macrauchenia, Toxodon, the giant deer Megaloceros, and the giant prehistoric cow the Auroch. In case you're wondering why Smilodon has appeared in so many movies, that may be because thousands of intact Smilodon skeletons have been extracted from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, a stone's throw from Hollywood ( the California variant of this genus, Smilodon californicus, is the official state fossil). By the way, the last specimen of Smilodon went extinct only 10,000 years ago; by then, primitive humans had figured out how to hunt coorperatively and killed off this poor dangerous menace once and for all. It also didn't hurt that these humans also hunted to extiction the giant, herbivorous megafauna that Smilodon snacked on. S.gracilis is the smallest species at about a metre long and ancestral to Megantereon. S.populator, the largest species, was 3 metres long and originated from South America, and the third species S.fatalis was intermediate in size between the two species and was from North and South America. These predators outcompeted the terror birds for food which were once top predators of South America for millions of years. Anatomy Smilodon was the largest sabre-tooth cat (popularly known as the sabre tooth tiger). It was a fierce predator about 4-5 feet (1.2-1.5 metres) long and 3 feet (0.9 metres) tall. It weighed about 440 lb (200 kg). It was a bit smaller than a modern-day lion (Panthera Leo), but much heavier. It had relatively short legs and a short, bobbed tail a bit like that of a modern-day Bobcat which is why it is called that because of its bob-like tail. Its front legs were especially powerful and its body was adapted for springing onto prey, but it was not a very fast runner and could not be adapted for chasing after fast running prey like deer. It could hunt some slower animals such as Macrauchenia, Toxodon, some subspecies of Mammoths, Ground Sloths, early humans, etc). Its 12 in (30 cm) skull had 2 huge sabre-like canine teeth and these were serrated, oval in cross-section, and up to 7 in (18 cm) long. Many Smilodon fossils have been found with broken canines; a fossil wolf was found with a Smilodon tooth fragment embedded in its skull. Smilodon had powerful jaws that opened to an angle of about 120 degrees while onthe other hand, todays lions can only open their jaws at 65 degrees. ]]Smilodon also had very strong jaw and neck muscles that let it stab prey with its deadly maxillary canine sabre teeth. Its front incisor teeth may also have been used to wrip away strips of flesh from the bones of its prey. Category:Stubs Category:Mammals Category:Carnivores Category:Primeval Category:Cats Category:Pleistocene Mammals Category:Cenozoic Category:Holocene Mammals